This is a critical time in case of The West Memphis Three. New DNA evidence, at the very least, raises disturbing questions. This new evidence is, of course, being dismissed by Judge Burnett. I wish someone would offer him a lucrative retirement package. New eyes are needed to look at all of the evidence. Two of the parents of the victims are in support of a new trial. There are several ways to help.
Raise awareness. Go to www.wm3.org and read about the case. They have T-shirts, bracelets, dog tags, and bumper stickers for sale that help fund the defense fund. They also announce various benefit events happening around the country. They also have a paypal account where you can simply donate to the defense.
Several Music Artists have contributed to Compilations to benefit Damien, Jesse, and Jason. The Metallica track does not benefit the defense, but Damien Mentions it in Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and I think of him every time I hear it.
Hope Rippey smiled broadly for her mug shot taken just a short while after she had poured gasoline on a living but beaten and stabbed Shanda Sharer before a friend, Laurie Tackett struck a match and ignited the fire that finally killed her. Shanda was a twelve year old girl that a friend of Tackett, Melinda Loveless, wanted dead. The evening before she doused the girl with gasoline, Rippey participated in kidnapping, beating , terrorizing, and strangling her.
Melinda had been threatening Shanda for weeks. She was in a jealous rage because her girlfriend, Amanda Hearvin, had been spending time with Shanda. On January 11, 1992, Laurie Hackett arrive at Melinda's house bringing along two of her friends, Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence. Rippey and Lawrence did not know Melinda. Melinda filled them in on the problems she was having with Sharer. She showed them a knife that she planned to use on Shanda.
Hope Rippey helped to lure Shanda away from her home by telling her that Amanda Hearvin was waiting at another location to meet her. Shanda went with Hope and Laurie to a waiting car where Toni Lawrence and Melinda Loveless (hiding under a blanket) were waiting. Hope started asking Shanda questions about her relationship with Amanda. Melinda seethed with anger while listening to the girl from her hiding place. Melinda came out from under the blanket and held a knife to Shanda's throat. Shanda cried and begged for her life. She promised that she would stay away from Amanda.
Shanda was taken to what Laurie Tackett referred to as "The Witches Castle" were she was bound. Laurie burned an old T-shirt for light. Some headlights from passing cars spooked the girls who then took Shanda to a field, where she was made to strip most of her clothing off. Melinda then beat her, then tried to cut her throat, but the knife was too dull. Shanda was then strangled with a rope until she passed out and placed in the trunk of the car.
At some point in the evening, they returned to Tackett's home with Shanda in the trunk of the car. Hope, Melinda, Laurie, and Toni were drinking sodas when they heard Shanda screaming from the car. Tackett left the house with a paring knife and returned from the then silent car with blood on her and the knife. Laurie then decided that they should go for a drive to dispose of Shanda. Hope and Toni declined to go along. Instead, they slept.
While they were asleep in the same house with Tackett's mother, who had no idea what was happening and would not be clued in by the two teenagers, Shanda was being driven around in the trunk of the car. It was bitterly cold and Shanda had been made to strip down to her panties earlier in the evening. Even after all she had been through she would occasionally regain consciousness and scream and beat on the trunk lid. Every time this happened Laurie or Melinda would "take care of it" with a tire iron.
The morning came without the two girls figuring out what to do, so they drove back to Laurie's house. They were eager to show the other two girls the new injuries they had inflicted on Shanda. Toni didn't want to see so she sat in the car ready to rev the engine in the event that Shanda were to scream. While viewing the Shanda in the trunk, Hope spied a bottle of Windex next to the girl. She picked it p and sprayed the cleaner onto the stab wounds on Shanda's body and watched it fizz. She then commented to Shanda, "You don't look so hot now."
The girls decided to the best way to dispose of Shanda was to burn her. They stopped at a local gas station and bought a 2 liter of soda. After the girls took a few swigs, they emptied the bottle and refilled it with gasoline. Hope told the group she knew of the perfect spot to dispose of the girl. They drove to the spot and Hope helped Laurie and Melinda remove Shanda from the trunk and lay her on the ground. She then poured the gasoline on her. Laurie struck the match and threw it. An autopsy would later conclude that Shanda Sharer died of smoke inhalation.
The girls then went to a McDonald's to eat breakfast. Laurie and Melinda joked that the sausage they were eating looked like Shanda.
The girls were soon charged with murder. They all entered pleas to various charges in 1993. Hope for murder and criminal confinement.
Rippey walked out of prison in 2006. She now goes by the name Anna.
She is now a registered violent offender/sex offender and is photographed every year. She no longer smiles when the the pictures are taken.
Carter has been convicted of first degree murder of Corinthian Houston. In an apparent act of revenge on his ex-girlfriend, he kidnapped her little boy, took him to an abandoned house, tied him to a chair, doused him with gasoline and set him on fire. Authorities later found little Corinthian's body still tied to the chair.
The baby the Lancaster community named Mary Ann was found dead in a dumpster near the Lancaster YMCA a year ago. A tombstone paid for by donations is now standing as a memorial to the infant. Her death has now been ruled a homicide.
The alleged victim told her mother Sunday about molestation she says occurred in 2004. Authorities are looking into whether any other incidents have occurred
Crystal Figueroa was a beautiful three and a half year old little girl. On January 12, 2006 her beaten and battered body was found in a dumpster at the Villa Cordova Apartments. For six weeks she was known as Jane "Cordova" Doe. No one reported the child missing, nobody came forward to claim her remains. A break came when the child's grandmother alerted authorities. Gladys Perez, the child's mother, and her boyfriend and Marc Anthony Colon were arrested and charged with murder. According to authorities the couple decided not to seek medical help for the little girl fearing that the extensive injuries would mean trouble for Colon who was on parole, instead they threw the child in the garbage after she quit breathing. They each point the finger at one another as to who caused Crystal's injuries.
Their trial has begun in Nevada.
I'll never understand how any mother could put self preservation or the welfare of her boyfriend/husband above the welfare of her child.
If you are in an abusive relationship or your children are being abused please seek help. Battered Women's hotlines
The two Andover men are charged with the murder and attempting to cover up the crime by making Waalen's death look like it was a result of a motorcycle accident. Police believe she was beaten to death during an argument.
The bodies of Tricia and Victor Reyes were found in trash containers frem a storage unit at Darrell's Mini Storage. The discovery was made after some Bakersfield residents who shared the unit with the Reyes children's mother cleaned out the unit. Alica Reyes, the prime suspect in the children's death's died earlier this year.
